News | Police and Crime Commissioner election
downsmail.co.uk
David Naghi
Gurvinder Sandher
Henry Bolton
Matthew Scott
Steve Uncles
Tristan Osborne Your choice for crime chief
KENT’S residents go to the polls on May 5 to elect the successor to Ann Barnes, the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner.
Maidstone Liberal Democrat
David Naghi, a borough council- lor for Eastward, takes on Conser- vative Matt Scott, who lives in Swanley and works as a parlia- mentary manager in Westminster. Mr Scott is tipped to be the winner. The other candidates are English Democrat Steve Uncles, of Dart- ford, who stood unsuccessfully in November 2012, Labour's Tristan Osborne, of Rochester who is a Medway councillor, and Ukip's Henry Bolton, who lives in Folke- stone and is a former regularArmy and reservist officer. The final candidate, Gravesend-
born Gurvinder Sandher, who lives in Dartford, sits on the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel
Boughton Monchelsea property multi-millionaire Fergus Wilson, whowas disqualified for filling out his forms incorrectly, may still be eligible to stand in the race if a High Court challenge is successful. The commissioner ensures the policing needs of the community are met as effectively as possible, and oversees how crime is tackled in a county with 1.5million resi- dents. The successful candidate is elected for four years to hold the police force to account on cutting crime and to ensure the force is ef- fective.
More details
FOR more information about the PCC election, visit
www.kent-
paro.org.uk. For more information about the
role of the PCC visit
www.choose-
mypcc.org.uk, or call 0800 1 07 07 08.
For the latest on this and other stories go to
www.downsmail.co.uk
38 Maidstone Town May 2016 Ann Barnes is not seeking re-election for a second term as commissioner
They bring a public voice to policing by engaging with the pub- lic and victims of crime to help set police and crime plans, ensuring the police force budget is spent where it matters most. They ap- point, and where necessary have the power to dismiss, the chief con- stable. However, the PCC does not
“run” the police force. Chief constables continue to be responsible for the day-to-day op-
erations of the police force, but they are accountable to the public via the police and crime commis- sioner. The county-wide election will be
held on Thursday, May 5, and in order to vote you must be on the electoral register. Commissioner Barnes stormed
to a landslide victory, largely due to a campaign led by Peter Carroll, the Liberal Democrat who has pre- viously stood in the Maidstone and
Court wait for former boxer
FERGUS Wilson, the controver- sial property tycoon who amassed a fortune in property in Ashford and Maidstone, could still have the chance to stand to become Kent's police and crime commissioner. The multi-millionaire landlord
was disqualified by the returning officer, Nadeem Aziz, after he failed to complete his application form and deliver it correctly. The outspoken former boxer
and maths teacher took the mat- ter to the High Court earlier this month where Mrs Justice Lang adjourned Mr Wilson's applica- tion for a judicial review. The judge agreed to hear the
case urgently due to the proxim- ity of next month’s election. There will be a full-day hear-
ing at the Queen’s Bench Divi- sion Administrative Court at the Royal Courts of Justice on Thurs- day, April 21.
The candidates
The six candidates vying for the role are as follows: Henry Bolton (Ukip) David Naghi (Lib Dem) Tristan Osborne (Labour) Gurvinder Sandher (Ind) Matthew Scott (Con) Steve Uncles (English Democrats)
theWealdWestminster elections. Her non-political, independent
stance resonated with voters across the county’s 13 council areas and 1.2million eligible voters. In a turnout of just 16%, Mrs Barnes polled 114,000 votes to the Conservative Craig MacKinlay’s 60,000. Mr MacKinlay is now MP for South Thanet. Mrs Barnes’ four year tenurewas dogged with controversy almost from day one. Within a few months, her newly- elected youth commissioner Paris Brown became front page news when her past Twitter history was revealed as containing racially sen- sitive material. Mrs Barnes was later embar-
rassed by a Channel 4 documen- tary in which she appeared unable to describe her role as commis- sioner.
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